Possil or Saracen pottery has a complicated history. under the brand name “nautilus”, they produced some of the finest porcelain ever produced in Britain, let alone Scotland.
A partnership of bayley, murray and joseph brammer founded a four-kiln pottery in 1875 known as saracen pottery. this first period was to last for 21 years and wares were exhibited at the glasgow exhibition of 1888, when they switched production to salt-glazed stoneware and changed name to possil pottery. it closed in 1896.
Simultaneously, in 1894, a successful china wholesaler rented part of a stoneware pottery. despite their name, macdougall & sons were actually brothers. they purchased the closed possil pottery works in 1896 and began producing porcelain wares under a trading name of “nautilus porcelain”. their porcelain products were as fine as worcester or belleek.
The death of one brother in 1910 may have been responsible for the pottery’s closure in 1911 and it stood vacant until 1916, when it was bought by the brewers firm tennents.
Tennents looked to secure stoneware during wartime scarcities and produced such wares until the second world war made materials and manpower too scarce to continue the works and it was sold to an iron works in 1942.